Maris-Mantle Home Run Race: Sept. 6, 1961

Published 8:00 pm, Monday, September 5, 2011

Roger Maris ended his mini-slump and the Yankee express kept rolling, blanking the Washington Senators 8-0 to complete a four-game sweep and make it seven straight wins overall.

Maris had gone 0-for-4 three straight games, and was 0-for-his-last-15 overall. When he fouled out to end the bottom of the first, that made it 0-for-16.

But after Senators pitcher Tom Cheney retired the first 11 batters he faced, Maris belted his 54th home run of the season with two outs in the bottom of the fourth to give New York a 1-0 lead. Maris would finish 1-for-3 with a walk.

His home run ignited a five-run rally. Mickey Mantle followed with a base on balls and Johnny Blanchard belted a two-run homer. Then after Elston Howard singled, Moose Skowron hit his 24th homer of the season to make it 5-0.

Mantle, who belted his 51st HR the day before, was 0-for-2 with two walks and a strikeout. His second walk came in the sixth inning and Blanchard followed with his second two-run homer of the game to up the lead to 7-0. The two home runs were Blanchard’s 17th and 18th of the season

Bob Hale closed out the scoring for the Yankees with a two-out solo homer in the bottom of the eighth.

Meanwhile, Whitey Ford pitched a five-hit shutout with seven strikeouts to raise his record to a Major League-best 23-3

With 140 games in books, Maris has 54 home runs and Mantle 51, while Babe Ruth hit his 52nd HR in his 140th game in 1927, the season he belted his record 60 HRs.

Even with the Yankees in first place, two players chasing baseball immortality, and the best pitcher in the league on the mound, the game drew only 12,295, one of the smallest crowds of the season at Yankee Stadium.

Did You Know … When Bob Hale homered in the bottom of the eighth, that would be his only HR of the 1961 season. In fact, it would be just the second and final home run of his seven-year major league career. Hale, a left-handed first baseman, broke into the majors as a 21-year-old in 1955 and played his first five seasons with Baltimore. He played the 1960 season and half of the ’61 season with Cleveland before getting picked off waivers by the Yankees on July 28. Hale appeared in only 11 games, mostly as a pinch-hitter, and was just 2-for-13 (.154). In this particular game 50 years ago today, he replaced Moose Skowron at first base in the top of the seventh inning. Hale also played 42 games with the Indians that season and was 6-for-36, all singles, but he drove in six runs. His only other hit with the Yankees was a single, and the HR would be his only RBI with the team. Hale’s only other career home run in the majors came in 1956 with the Orioles.